Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Augustine Eruption

I've been paying attention to a series of stories on CNN.com and the Anchorage Daily News website about a series of eruptions of Augustine, which is a volcanic island about 75 miles southwest of our home in Homer, Alaska. Today it started to get pretty exciting.

From the Alaska Volcano Observatory site (where they have all kinds of great photos and technical data for the seismologically inclined, as does Wikipedia, and here's a great NASA shot of Augustine's ash plume in December).

A strong seismic signal began at approximately 7:58 AST, marking the onset of an explosive eruption of Augustine.

They've changed the level of concern color code to red, which makes sense to me. The weather forecast includes an ash fall warning for Homer, which is something you don't see every day.

Comments

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Wow! Eruption. It's been, oh seven years or so since I was last in Alaska. I wonder what the ash in the atmosphere does for the colors during sunset - maybe it will make them as colorful as the winter aurora for awhile. For part of the first summer I spent in Alaska, I slaved away at a salmon plant in Kenai, spending quite a few nights working late on the docks. I still remember the volcano always on the distant horizon. Can't remember the name of that volcano (the big one you can see from Kenai?!), but it just added to the beauty and still-present primal energy I felt in the Alaskan landscape. Great blog!
Tracy Chttp://www.SleepyTimestore.com